It’s a quick turnaround for the Philadelphia Flyers, who hopped on a plane after Monday’s frustrating loss in Montreal and will host another Atlantic Division foe, the Buffalo Sabres, tonight at home.
The big question for the Flyers is just who will come out of the lineup as defenseman Radko Gudas returns from his six-game suspension. We know it won’t be Shayne Gostisbehere or Ivan Provorov, and it probably won’t be Mark Streit given that he has an ‘A’ on his chest. Brandon Manning entered the season as the last guy on the depth chart, but he’s played so well that it’d be hard to see him coming out.
So it’s probably Andrew MacDonald or Nick Schultz who will sit. We’ll know more after morning skate, including just how the pairings shake up with the changes.
Of course, Gudas’ return is big one for the Flyers. He in many ways has played like a top pairing defenseman in his time here, despite all of the shenanigans otherwise, and inserting him back into the lineup should be a big help. It will be interesting to see how long the Sabres’ memories are, since the last time these two teams played back in February, Gudas avoided suspension for a questionable hit in the waning minutes of the contest. Wonder if anything comes of that tonight.
Buffalo will start goaltender Anders Nilsson tonight in place of regular starter Robin Lehner, who has played in all four Sabres games thus far this season but is out with an illness tonight. Nilsson performed well in preseason for the Sabres, but it’s safe to say he’s a welcome respite after seeing Carey Price a night ago.
Jack Eichel remains out of the Sabres lineup with an ankle injury that he suffered in practice a few weeks back. Evander Kane is also out of the lineup, so they’re hurting among their top offensive talent.
Tonight’s game can be seen locally on CSN Philly and heard on 97.5 The Fanatic. Nationally, the game can be found on NBCSN or live streamed through NBC Live Extra.
For more from the Buffalo perspective, be sure to check out Die By The Blade.
Here are the lineups, as far as we know:
Philadelphia lineup (highly subject to change)
Forwards
- Brayden Schenn – Claude Giroux – Wayne Simmonds
- Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek
- Nick Cousins – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Meat Read
- Chris VandeVelde – Boyd Gordon – Roman Lyubimov
Defense
- no clue!
Goalies
- Steve Mason
- Michal Neuvirth
Scratches: somebody!
Injured: Michael Del Zotto, Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl
Suspended: Dale Weise
Buffalo lineup (via Buffalo News)
Forwards
- Matt Moulson – Ryan O’Reilly – Kyle Okposo
- Tyler Ennis – Sam Reinhart – Zemgus Girgensons
- Marcus Foligno – Johan Larsson – Brian Gionta
- Nicolas Deslauriers – Derek Grant – Hudson Fasching
Defense
- Josh Gorges – Rasmus Ristolainen
- Dmitry Kulikov – Zach Bogosian
- Jake McCabe – Cody Franson
Goalies
- Anders Nilsson
- Linus Ullmark
